Alive: The Teens
by Ethan Solomon
Summary: A look inside the world of Alive, 200 years into the immortality, and the life people live with their companions.


_Alive: The Teens_

_Earth, 2152_

_It was Joseph's 13__th__ birthday, which meant he was getting his own Model 9. Everyone got their first model when they turned thirteen. It was like the magic number. Life effectively changed when you hit your teens. You would only get glimpses of the adults bustling about in their own lives' doing whatever it is they did. The teenagers were the only real contact the kids got with another human being. Every night the teens had a schedule with the children of activities to do. It wasn't quite like school; it was more like the free time that they got at school. And the teens weren't allowed to use their Models when they were sitting on them either. It was just the two of them, and sometimes some of them would get together and they would all sit about talking. It was weird. Whenever they were at school, there was always the presence of Model's, everywhere you looked, from the terminal in front of you to the teachers at the front of the class._

_Joseph was kind of scared to accept this responsibility. The Model 9 was to be his friend until he passed through his teenage years, and had its own distinct way of being that Joseph would have to grow accustomed to. It would be his friend, his mentor, his teacher, his parent, and perhaps hopefully a friend. And so for some reason he was nervous to meet Chrissie, which was apparently the name of his model. Compared to the parent's model's the Model 9's were ancient clunkers, but they were still advanced machines, sufficiently advanced to the point where they could pass the Turing Test. The interesting concept with the 9's was that when they shipped out, they didn't have access to much of their personality's, but instead appeared to "age" emotionally alongside with their masters. The point was to get the children comfortable around advanced machinery, which was necessary just to survive on the planet and her surrounding sisters Mars and Venus. Especially on the colony planets, because there technology was your life, and if you didn't care for it, love it truly, it would turn on you, and you would one day find yourself cursing all that tech as your air runs out, or a hatch blows on you, or a circuit your working on hiccups, and on and on. _

_Joseph knew how much depended on his relationship with Eli. If he had any interest in being a colonist, or a pilot, or practically anything, much of it rest on how he got along with Eli. If used properly however, the Mark 9's could be a very powerful tool to help a child achieve his true potential, or to simply help to nudge the child along a chosen path. And it was all recorded. Every moment of it was stored in the hard drive inside Eli and transmitted every night on a set schedule to the MetaLife facilities located somewhere in China. There, the days events were entered into the massive server's that were kept underground at the Ichivoa Underground Complex. There, the files could be accessed by anyone granted permission, which included, but is not limited too, his parents, teachers, Dr's, government officials, potential employer's and so forth. The information garnered helped place the child in the best possible place in society, be it as an artist or actor, a senator or a garbage man. He would be completely reliant on Eli for everything, from friendship to tutoring to everything in between. He was one of the last kids in his class to get a Mark because of his age, and he was looking forward to taking Eli out for a "test drive". _

_A plain grey van finally pulled up outside the small suburban home and pulled to a stop. The door facing him slid open. A girl popped out, no strike that, a young woman. She leapt ever so lightly to the ground and yet moved swiftly and confidently, pulling two huge bags out of the van, which by all rights she should not have been able to carry, not even one of them. But she seemed to heft them easily, barely even paying any attention to the actions required, but seeming more interested in her surroundings, which she took in with quick jerks of her head this way and that. She turned around and started to head up the short winding walkway that led to the house. She was plain looking, or as much so as she could seem to Joseph. She didn't catch the eye at all, and moved…somehow differently, though he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was exactly. Just, somehow differently. And it certainly wasn't that she was unattractive, for she was in her own way, as each pretty girl who looks the same as another does not. But he couldn't stretch his mind too far around it for he had limited knowledge of matters like this. His older brother Sikely had a girlfriend and it seemed that they were attached by the hips to each other, when he saw one the other was surely not far behind. His brothers girlfriend, Amanda, now she was a gorgeous girl, even he could tell that much. And how his parents fawned over those two, making accommodations for whatever they needed. Not that he was jealous, just anxious to reach that point of his own life and to get out of this suffocating house. _

_And now she was up the stairs and knocking on the doorway, so he walked up to the door, and with a quick breath to cause the tremors in his heart, he opened up the door and stood face to face across from her, a nervous expression on his face and a beaming smile on hers. Even with those bags she reached around him and pulled him close to her for a hug, and the overwhelming sudden closeness made him stiffen up against her, and her scent, a clean, almost pine clean scent hit his nostrils. This was certainly not what he had expected, but he was not unpleased at the same time. She let go of him and he opened the door all the way, and somehow deftly managed to get herself through the doorway with the giant bags with no trouble at all. The way she walked reminded him of a scared cat, and she peered around at her new surroundings with not a trace of the confidence she had been displaying before, almost shyly. And look she did, moving through the entranceway which was a sofscreen running all along the 20 feet of the entrance hallway, leading into the kitchen. Today the walls were the inside of the fish tank and she dropped one bag to try to knock on the wall by a fish, which proceeded to swim quickly away from her. She peered closer into the wall, and then as if she was figuring it out right then she said, almost too herself, "It's not real". When he heard her say this he had to suppress the need to laugh, which he was barely able too. She turned to look at him, her cheeks reddening in embarrassment. He came to stand right next to her, also looking at the wall, avoiding her gaze. "It's nice though isn't it, even if it's not real?" She frowned and turned to him. "I want to see a real one." He looked in her eyes and read the seriousness in her eyes, no sarcasm or joke even hinted at". "Why?" Her frown settled deeper now. "Because….I want to see the real thing". The real thing? He couldn't follow her train of thought at all. "Why?" There was silence between the two of them, the sun choosing this moment to peek its way into the little hallway through the sky view strip embedded in the ceiling above them, its dim, hazy, filtered light striking her face with just a kiss of its light, and the way it caught her hair and her eyes somehow reminded him that she really was a girl, and she was quite cute when he was standing this close to him. His heart started jumping faster by a few beats, some heat rising to his cheeks until he forced himself to turn and look at the wall again. "I just do". _

_1 Month Later_

_They sat in his room going over Mathematics, the same lesson that they had been doing the day before. His room was now in its classroom configuration, with none of his wall images in place, just a plain blank white wall with his bed on the far side of the room. His desk faced the giant window overlooking Port Huron, and Chrissie always stood right in front of him while they worked. She never ever sat while they were doing lessons, but instead choose to stand between him and the window, everyday, at something close to parade rest. _

_Math frustrated him, not coming fluidly at all, and so she insisted on concentrating their efforts on improving his abilities in that area. Every day, for hours on end they sat in his room, going through the lessons she had been given to teach him, lessons that were compacted, compressed, and placed in his neural terminal, which they then went through one by one. All their time was spent together, from waking in the morning to going to sleep at night. She slept in his room, standing in a corner with her eyes closed. It had taken him a few weeks of getting used to, but once he had, he felt so much safer then he had before, the ultimate safety blanket, always alert, always watching out for him. And she was nice to be around. She wasn't annoying, didn't bitch at him for following his whims, painting, reading, writing. She had all the time in the world, and would answer any question he ever had, honestly, guaranteed. She always had plenty of recommendations on things he had shown previous interest in, and she was able to unfailingly point him in new directions of interest._

_So this was their routine, and had been so for the past year. She tutored him and mentored him, but was more of a friend then a mentor, keeping an eye on him, yet encouraging him at the same time, like a friend with a bad influence, she helped him explore fully the emotional range, and she experienced them for the first time with him, allowing them to bond together like true friends. She came with a core shell of programming, the outline that with experience helped her fully understand the human condition, to sympathize with his condition and what he was going through. The amount of programming that she came with mimicked his developing mind, and the feelings and emotions that went along with it. When he reached 21, he would be given the choice to continue with or without her, temporarily or on a permanent basis, or have her conscious emplaced within his neural terminal. He had years before he had to worry about that, and yet already he wondered about such things, things that shouldn't concern him in the least. He liked their relationship as it was in its current form, and he didn't think he would change it when he was given the chance. Or at least, that's how he felt now. Things were fluid in life, and his still developing mind was already able to understand that, with the conditioning he had been receiving since childhood. Now, he had a constant monitor, one that walked, talked, and was a better friend then any person he could possibly imagine. He just couldn't understand how people had been trained before now. Sitting in classrooms, competing with other students…he couldn't even imagine it. He knew all the people in his neighborhood on the nets, keeping in close contact with all of them, but he didn't have too many friends that he saw with any regularity, on an actual physical level. _

_So when she kissed him, he was a bit surprised. He didn't know what to do, so they kissed for awhile, on his bed in his room, at 3:45 P.M. January 14__th__ 2142. It was nice for him, the first time he had ever kissed a girl, real or not. But it had definitely freaked him out a bit as well. A little bit later, during dinner, the ramifications of what he had done finally hit him, and he started to feel a bit bad about it. There was no one around for him to talk too, other then Chrissie, so he kept it to himself, but at the same time, unconsciously trying to keep away from her, for what was the first time in their relationship. Suddenly he felt a new feeling, awkward. And he was getting his alone time, which likely meant that she felt the same way, or perhaps was upset at him for feeling the way he was feeling. Who knew. He couldn't predict her moods or her actions, any better then she could his. He certainly hadn't felt like kissing her, the thought hadn't so much as even crossed his mind. Now that they had though, he couldn't get the thought out of his mind. It was bugging the shit out of him. He didn't know how he should feel about it, or who to talk to about it. He would be seeing his older brother in a few days, three to be exact, and his lace informing him of the day even as he thought of the meeting. So he would wait till Wednesday, until he had a chance to have a real conversation with a human being, namely his brother. Normally hanging out was just playing virt games on the nets, talking about school and social events that they occasionally went too together, usually with Avi as his chaperone, along with his Mark Seven, named Chloe, who was a beautiful classic blonde, a bit short for his tastes if he really put any thought into it. _

_Wednesday:_

_By the time meeting Avi went down, things had gotten progressively worse with Chrissie, with the two of them avoiding each other for the previous few days other then the necessary classes that she saw him through each day, every day, without fail. They avoided eye contact, and the first time they saw each other the day after, which had been Monday, they had stuttered their way through the conversation in an awkward attempt at pretending nothing had happened, that they had never kissed or nothing had ever happened, that the entire dynamic of their relationship had been changed. After the classes she stayed in the house, but away from him, cooking dinner for the family and doing the cleanup afterwards, trying to keep busy. Avi was late, 4 hours late, and he had to be in bed in another two. This was the first time anything like this had happened, and he knew it had to be authorized because their time together was mandatory._

_When Avi finally showed up, alone, his mark was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't the first time, but it was unsettling for him. He barged into Joseph's room, his eyes half glazed over from working on his lace at the same time. Avi sat down at the desk, and after a few quick seconds, the glazed look disappeared and Avi's eyes snapped fully into focus. "Sorry about that, Chloe and I are just doing some experiments for my work, resource heavy. Technically, I couldn't make it tonight, but Chloe can be very insistent, if you know what I mean. I need something to eat though, lets get something to eat." Joseph had time to figure out exactly what he wanted to say, this was a way in, he could feel it. "What do you mean insistent, like she makes you do things?" "No, she never makes me do things, just encourages certain points of view a lot, so that eventually, I just give in." "Yeah, but don't you ever just want to be left alone, to not have her bothering you about everything...?" "Avi sat down in the kitchen, food forgotten for a second, eyeing Joseph now, a glint of suspicion in his eye. "What's going on Joe…Come to think of it, where's Chrissie?" Joseph grimaced, both inwardly and on his face, and Avi laughed. "Oh gosh, what's happened between the two of you?" He continued to laugh for a few seconds, his head thrown back in delight. "She kissed me". Avi stopped laughing. "That's a bit early…earlier then usual I guess, so what's your problem?" "My problem?" "Yeah, did you not like it or what's the issue?" He had to think about this for a second. It hadn't felt bad, but it had felt wrong. Like he was kissing someone he just wasn't supposed to. "I don't know…it felt weird, you know?" Avi smiled and got up from his chair, went to the freezer and pulled out some ice cream and brought it back with two spoons stuck in it. They started eating out of the tub, and Avi had his eyes on him, watching him. Avi was 19, and knew things he could only imagine, and when his older brother was watching him like that, it kind of freaked him out, knowing there were things going through that mind that he just didn't get yet. "Listen, there's nothing wrong with how your feeling. Some people…and their Mark's, they end up really liking each other, but it doesn't usually last, because the Mark's are different then us, and even though you might not realize that now, in a couple of years you will, after you get to hang out with some real girls. Chrissie is like a preparation for you right now, to prepare you in how to talk to, and handle the people you meet and everything that you're going to deal with in life. But if you don't feel comfortable, then you just have to tell her, be honest with her, ok?" Joseph thought this over as they ate the ice cream. "Yeah, I get I guess." Avi stopped eating and looked away from him, breaking the eye contact they had been holding. "Listen, I want you to know something. I love Chloe. She's like a real mom to me, not like Linda. Chloe's my real mom, but she's also so much more then that. She's a sister, and a friend, an she was more to me once. But a long time ago, when I was your age, and just for a little while, until I woke up to reality. But there's nothing wrong with it, I know a couple of people Dad's age who are legally living with their Mark's. They are legally people, so just figure out how you yourself feel, everything else will fall into place after that. Ok?" Again a second to pause and think, to figure out his own emotions before he would respond. "Yeah, I think so…and thanks Avi."_

_Thursday:_

_Chrissie woke him up, as usual. He had been up late last night, Avi had stayed for an extra hour and they had continued talking down in the kitchen. He loved the time they spent together, the warm glow he had while he spoke about all the things he was doing, what he was learning about, and how animated his brothers responses were compared to Chrissies. His mind had had time to process what had been said the night before, and it made sense to him now. He saw how his conversations with his brother, and the few that he had with his parents, differed so much from the ones he had with Chrissie, as well as the few other mark's he had spoken with. They just felt things differently then he did, then the real people did. They might be classified intelligent to rate being called artificial intelligence, but they weren't human. There was something…innately inhuman about them, and it marked them. Every move they made, every word they spoke was a betrayal of that inhumanity, a reminder that they were not the same species. But his emotions betrayed him as well, because after all this time, he had grown so close to her, he wasn't sure what he wanted for sure, just for now, and he had to get that across to her. He came downstairs bleary eyed and still dead tired, his limbs moving of their own accord, everything set unto automatic. He sat down at the little island right behind the cooking area in the kitchen, and she scooped some eggs unto his plate, with toast and butter, a glass of orange juice, and then sat across from him. As soon as he started to nibble at his breakfast, he snuck a look up at her, and she was watching him with the saddest expression he had ever seen in real life. It hurt him so bad inside, he couldn't believe. It was like someone had detonated a supernova of pain and shock and misery inside of his chest, and it was all he could do to just not go over to her and hold her and tell her how sorry he was. That he loved her, that he really loved her, and wanted to spend his whole life with her, forever with her. But as a friend, someone that he needed by his side more then anyone else in the world, but he could never have the same feelings for her that he could for a human girl. He could understand why some people would be interested in…testing such options, but he would wait until he met his wife, his girl, the one that was out there for him. _

_So he sat there, calmly eating his breakfast while she watched him, leaning her head on her hands as she watched him. The sun was beating beautifully down on them from the window to their right, and it brought the room into stark illumination, the glass, which was embedded, darkened the interior lights to compensate as the sunlight flashed into the room. He looked up at her, and she smiled at him now, and he leaned forward and gave her a small peck on the cheek. "I love you". She smiles, and she knows, and she is happy, for she has gone through her own learning process as well. She understands why she did what she did, she knows how he feels, and as long as she knows, she is happy. She knows her master loves her. She knows she loves her master. Everything else was just talking. They would be together, until the stars themselves would die out, and whatever would come after that. She didn't need to be his lover to feel fulfilled, she was just happy that a man loved her, the man she had been sent to protect from harm, from accidents and whatever else could still befall him. She would die for him, and she lived only for him. Without him, her existence was nothing, she would just be a left over remnant of a name that meant nothing, and she would mean nothing, exist for no reason, and be cast out from society, useless. They would never put her down, not even think the thought, but would be free to continue her existence, an oddity. He gave her purpose, a reason for living. And she loved him. She would always be there for him. _


End file.
